Current Version Issues

To use third-party maps (those maps not directly provided by Relic) with the Warlords modification, create a “data/leveldata/multiplayer/deathmatch” directory, and place the level file in there.

The game crashes, and I want to complain.

Go to the thread and complain, with a Homeworld 2 logdump (HW2.LOG ONLY!!!!) if appropriate, and comments on when the crash occured, and what you were doing EXACTLY. This will help isolate the problem.

Something seems unbalanced, fix it.

State what is unbalanced and why. It probably does need to be fixed.

Why does the AI do weird things?

I don’t know, I put that on hold to fix other things. It is not a priority at the moment, but it will be fixed in the future.

Star Wars Technical Issues

I thought about it, but couldn’t come up with a really valid system that worked in the game. As far as I’m concerned, the globes are sensors and not shield generators. Star Wars shields hug the surface of a ship and are generated with small pole emitters that jut from the hull surface. It would be pretty bizarre to have massive shield generator domes so far away from the area of the ship you want to protect the most (which are the power generation areas and engines). I know it goes against established canon but it makes a heck of a lot more sense from a survivability standpoint. Another reason why sensors would make sense at that location is that it provides a fairly unobstructed line of sight to most of the surrounding space and is high enough above the engine wash to give a good idea what is behind you. Presumably, there also are extensive sensor networks along the spine (or bottom) of the ship that would be used for docking, and compensate for the shadowed area of the main sensors. For more on this, read the technical commentaries.

What about hero units? I want Jedi!

If the mod had a SP component then there would be heros. However, I can’t justify them being in a MP game (or rather, I don’t want to). Imagine if they were buildable somehow. That just seems corny as heck (and what would they really do? Be so uber that you would use only them?).

Ion cannons

Ion cannons in the mod work (build the ion platform :-p) they just have shorter range than the equivalent turbolaser. This was mainly for balance, because it made you engage your ships closer to bring more weapons to bear. I would like comments on whether I should change this. Some ships in the game do not have EMP/secondary entries and are therefore immune to ion cannon fire. (the EMP/secondary health bar seems to popup at weird times, too. Let me know if you have any information on this). Should the ion cannon range be shorter?

Hyperspace

Currently, the plan is to make hyperspaceing a flat rate based on the tonnage of the ship. Also, larger ships will have longer reversion times. I also plan to make a minimum jump distance, so that you can’t hop all over the place (15 km or so). The rate will be cheap enough to encourage people to use it, but expensive enough that when you want to move a fleet to attack you will have to plan for it a little (an ISD may be around 50 ru’s). Does this pricing seem reasonable?

Flak explosions

I have the flak explosions because they are occasionally present in the movies. My personal judgment is that Star Wars “lasers” are actually magnetically contained plasma projectiles and not just photons like a laser is. When the field breaks down, the plasma is released, and rapidly cools in the vacuum. If people think it should be different, I’m not going to argue, because if something else looks cooler and is more technically accurate, then I will use it.

these have been removed because of performance issues and they didn’t look that great anywaySubsystems

What complexity of subsystems should be implemented? I know that I can implement engine, hyperdrive, bridge, power generation, sensors and shield generators. There is the possibility of hangars also. Should this level of complexity be evident only on larger ships? Or should smaller ships (like gunships) have engine subsystems (but nothing else)?Top

The Future

What about ion cannon hit effects?

Ion cannon hit effects are possible, and it will take some FX editing and proper collison meshes.

Why don’t ships have shields?

The collision meshes need to be generated and tweaked.

I have this great idea for a ship…

The ship list has basically been frozen, and any adjustments to it will be minor.Top